Bad port roads would hinder Osinbajo’s Executive Order

Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, the Executive Vice Chairman of Sifax Group, has identified the dilapidated ports access roads as a major inhibiting factor against the actualization of the Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business in Nigerian ports which was issued recently by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.While commending the good intentions of the Acting President in the ExecutiveOrder, Afolabi noted that the EO would have to be holisticaly consumated with emphasis placed on an urgent reconstruction of the Apapa port access roads which have literally broken down and are a source of concern for all business stakeholders. He said that fixing the roads would not only aid the initiative of the Acting President but bring relief and order to the country’s economic gateway, the ports. Afolabi said: “The Ease of Doing Business Executive Orders are good and brilliant initiatives to improve the customer experience, particularly at the nation’s points of entry. I want to commend the government for it. However, I want to submit that the initiative should be an all-encompassing one, where other hindering factors, especially critical infrastructure, are attended to without delay. “Take for instance, the Apapa ports. There is no way a customer experience can be improved when the importers and exporters find it extremely difficult to transport their goods in and out of the ports because the roads are in a sorry state. Containers fall on these roads on a daily basis with attendant losses. Workers, residents and business owners in the area are not finding things easy as well.”The shipping magnate appealed to the federal government to quickly undertake a thorough review of other inhibiting factors to doing business in Nigerian ports and tackle them with the urgency the Abuja airport runway was repaired